I'm glad this is the only major issue affecting the Norwegian population.

Gender bias in IKEA instructions?

Norway's prime minister says company should alter brochures that show only men assembling furniture.
March 10, 2005: 1:46 PM EST

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) - Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA is guilty of sex discrimination by showing only men putting together furniture in its instruction manuals, Norway's prime minister says.

IKEA, which has more than 200 stores in 32 nations, fears it might offend Muslims by depicting women assembling everything from cupboards to beds. Its manuals show only men or cartoon figures whose sex is unclear.

B.S.......... I hate political correctness and don't use it! Those cartoon figures are cute little things and this is just stupid now :- Why doesn't he now blame then because half of them aren't coloured black? hehe

I agree with the minister, this is plain wrong. Why are men expected to do women's chores, and still have to assemble furniture? If women want us to cook and clean, they have to start assembling furniture too!

hehehehehehe

"it's kind of like an Airbus, it's an engineering marvel, but there's no sense of passion" -- J. Clarkson re: Coxster

And for the record, this is not among the headlines in the news in Norway today. A controversial newly appointed bishop accused of being to conservative, two swedish police officers beating up a 60 year old, and people objecting about the fact that an Iraqi citizen (who killed a norwegian woman) has been sentenced to death in Iraq. But no Ikea news... Never heared of it before.

Come on 777! There is a difference between calling someone a paki and saying a company is sexist because there are no woman in their manuals! The two things are on two different levels.

Really? Given the glass ceiling that exists in nearly every company, calling Ikea sexist is probably true, for whatever reason. The stigma of being female can be just as bad as the stigma associated with being called 'a paki'.

Maybe IKEA is suggesting that women are smart enough to get a guy to assemble their furniture. I would also note that many women on average could have some difficult in assembling some furniture (I have assembled a number of items from them) due to the weight of some large wood parts or the entire item itself, as you move the item after assembly